A Broken Master
by J.R.C. Valentino
Summary: The Master Sword Broken. Hyrule is broken. The Temple of time sealed tight. A shadow Hyrule had hoped to avoid has darkened the lands


ZELDA AND ALL THINGS NINTENDO DO NOT BELONG TO ME.

The young Hero of Time approached his true weapon. Just like always, he steps onto the stone pedastal and grips the handle firmly. He pulls upward, the holy sequence begins. Blue light shines from the slot where the blade rests. The world around Link is thrown into a temporal funnel. He feels his body growing rapidly, the massive pains like a werewolf being molded by the moon.

 _Shhkik_ _ting!_ An unusual sound. The process was pretty rinse and repeat and yet, the hero had never heard such a sound. He didn't have much time to consider what it was. He falls backward and lands on his butt.

 _Eyah!_

He responds more to the surprise than the pain. Luckily, the sword is still in his hand. He stands and notices something in the time pedestal. Attempting to sheath the sword, he steps closer. He misses the sheath and nicks his thumb in the same moment that he realizes what's in the pedestal. Lifting the sword confirms his realization.

The Master Sword had broken. Sticking out of the pedestal was the tip of the sword. A face pops into his mind, a goron. If anyone could fix this, it would be the goron smith. He pulls the tip from the pedestal and slides it into the sheath. He sheaths the rest of the sword behind it.

 _Tingle Tingle!_

A little pink fairy flutters into his face.

"Listen! Something is very wrong! When the sword broke, we must have went further in time than usual! Look at yourself!"

Link obeyed, pulling the hylian shield from his back and peering into the polished silver where his arm would usually go.

The fairy wasn't kidding. Link was starting to get a beard, although as of now it was still just fuzz. His face seemed thicker than usual, his bones stronger. He noticed his arms were bigger too. He wasn't the same lean warrior as before. Now he had developed thickened muscles. Link had become huge, giving Ganon himself a run for his money.

There was nothing Link could do with this information for now. Navi broke his trance from the reflection and gestured towards the entrance.

Turning and walking to the rest of the temple reveals a tragedy. The temple is torn apart. The three precious jewels are missing. A Great Fairy lays in the ground, a pool of glittered crimson around her. He rushes to her side, Navi bouncing beside him.

A feeble laugh escapes the fairy's lips. "Hero, finally you've awakened. The sages had thought you dead. Seria was especially distraught. But I see I have made a wise choice in protecting this temple." She gasps, arcs her back, then shudders a bit.

"You must return to the past, Hero. The evil overtaking Ganon has become increasingly insidious. This world can no longer be saved at this time."

Suddenly, the door to the pedestal slams shut. Navi rockets towards it only to crash into the stone. She shakes herself at the door aggressively.

"That does not bode well. But no matter, you are the Hero, and you have the Master Sword! I have sent two of the three jewels to safe locations, but the dark side has taken the third. You must get them back ... and... save..." The light leaves her eyes. Her head falls limp. Fighting back a cacophony of painful emotions, Link pushes himself to his feet, retaining his classic stoic silence.

Navi slowly returns to Link's side. She allows him a moment then jumps in front of his face.

"The Great Deku Tree has trusted us with a mission! As long as we get that sword fixed and get those jewels, we can go back before all this and do what we're meant to do!" She says, flying over to the door way.

Link followes her lead and leaves the temple to see how much worse the world had truly become. Although it didn't show, it never shows, Link was vehemently distraught by what he discovered.

The castle had been nearly shattered. wall and tower was ripped apart with stone bricks sticking out disproportionally like broken bone. The town was gone. The only thing left was scorched earth. Typically, when jumping to the future, some ReDead can be found wandering around. This time, the town was eradicated to the point where there wasn't even a sign of ReLife.

Thunder boomed and Link whipped his head up. The sky was naught but a maelstrom of devestation. Lightning pierced the cosmic shadows in every direction. Navi quakes at the sight around them.

With the usual obstacles removed by time and misfortune, Link had no trouble hustling to the massive entryway of the castle. He had never gotten the chance to use the actual entrance before. He pressed his palms flat against the steel doors and pushed. They opened with no resistance whatsoever.

He remembered seeing the entry hallway and the throne room from windows in the garden to the side of the castle. It was also where he first met Zelda. He felt some reassurance in the knowledge that she had gone into hiding in the time that he was still a child.

He wandered toward the throne, taking in the sights. There were skeletons donned in armor scattered around. Even as a teenager, he never had the opportunity to test their mettle. Navi floated down to the skeletons and jumped around. Link moved towards her.

"Something's not right about these guys... I still feel some kind of energy from them!" And as she finished talking, all the skeletons suddenly leapt to their feet.

Link immediately reacted by drawing his sword. He had forgotten it was broken, but now that it was drawn he didnt have many other options. He pulls the shield from his back and gets it up just in time. A skeleton had jumped towards him, thrusting a spear his way.

Link parries this and swings the broken sword with his new muscles. It whistles through the air and cracks against the helmet so hard that the skull splinters underneath it. The first skeleton drops.

"Link! Behind you!" Navi shouts. Link rolls to the side as a blade passes so close that his tunic tears. He rolls right back onto his feet and shield charges a skeleton that hadn't attacked him yet. It rattles as the shield smashes into it, throwing it backward onto the ground. Link senses only one sensible option left with his sword broken.

Using the bit of time he bought himself, he throws the sword back into its sheath, puts his shield away, and pulls out the megaton hammer. With his new strength he found it much easier to handle. The steel bringer of death closed down upon a skeletons head, shattering the skull and helmet both.

Link spins just in time to see a skeleton swinging at him. He thrusts the hammer forward, disrupting the skeletons attack. He shoulder bashes into it, knocking it down. The hammer smashes into a different skeletons leg as Link switches target. The leg seems to explode as Link brings the hammer across the skull, eradicating the skeletons head.

He turns and smashes the hammer back down upon the shoulder bashed one. Which marks the destruction of the last skeleton. He puts the hammer back to whatever pocket dimension he hides all those extra weapons in and continues to the throne room.

Even the inner castle was not spared from the destruction of Evil's hand. An entire section was rent from the throne room. Link eyed the throne. It was cleared of all kings, not even the wicked Ganon seemed to claim it any longer. Link journeys the stairs to the glorious throne and upon reaching it, glides his hand along an armrest. The Hero could not resist such corporeal temptation. He sits in that weathered seat and looks out at what a King would see.

Our Hero had never before considered what being a King would grant him.

He releases himself from the grasp of weighted power and proceeds through whats left of the castle that he can. No thing remained. There was no hint to where the Evil might have wandered too. No doubt, Ganon had decided that Hyrule was not big enough.

Returning to the throne as a resting point, our Hero must have already felt exhausted by the call of the quest before him.

Once again he must reclaim the jewels of power and to do so he must first find that goron.


End file.
